Disrupt everything

It’s really difficult to talk about business change without falling into the traps of using jargon and labels. So I’ve come up with my own – Is this now the ‘let’s disrupt everything’ world? LDE anyone?

First there was restructuring, then came transformation, followed by change management which was neatly followed by ‘constant change’, which quickly evolved into VUCA.

But does VUCA in practice mean that businesses are disrupting all of their strategies (people and other) to cope with uncertainty? Is the disruption being fueled by business requirements or the rhetoric from the media of ‘we are in unprecedented times’ ‘nothing will ever be the same as before’ ‘the 4th industrial revolution is coming’ etc. etc. Or is it just complicated to change a business quickly enough for the board and stakeholders?

Currently removal of formal policies seems to be the main output of this disruption e.g. performance appraisals and parts of the formal reward package, self-directed learning, more self-service etc. So, have large levels of business change led to what shall we reformat next? The speed of change in business may be the same as it always was – but our propensity to rip up the rule book has markedly increased.

With businesses now facing a range of challenges and competitors from all angles (digitalisation, globalisation, economic factors, productivity levels, efficiency savings) perhaps the current ‘Let’s Disrupt Everything’ internal mentality towards business strategy is the natural method of managing the external conditions and flux? To do nothing is risky, but perhaps to change everything all at once is just as dangerous.

When we look at business challenges at the moment they are quite frightening. They may include: